Monday Musings: Gravestone NOT always right

Happy Monday all. Another slow day at work, so I went to the library to use the microfilm to find a couple obituaries for a client. Low and behold, I find a funny article with the following title:

"Died in 1950" Sign Shocks Visitors to Wisconsin Cemetery

Okay so you're reading this thinking why is "died in 1950" so shocking? Well it helps to know the DATE of the article. I found this in my local Nebraska newspaper dated 21 November 1946 !! 
So apparently this man wanted to predict his death. So how well did he do?

Coming home, I check Findagrave and find this: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=145383052

The contributor has noted the stone says 1950, but the cemetery records have 1958. I have sent corrections to this contributor.

Apparently Mr. John Aplin had quite the sense of humor, and he was right about one thing: "There probably won't be anyone to take care of it when I die, so I might just as well do it myself". 

So genealogists if you have a relative who thinks like John "It doesn't make any difference if it's a few years one way or the other", then you better make sure you have two or more sources for every event. With relatives like him, you'll need them!